The Burning Secret
by BlackholeRaven1311
Summary: The most painful moment of Ryuusei's past revealed. But he hadn't known, that incident would repeat itself... He had to stop it, or Ginga would be the next victim... R&R, and thanks for reading.
1. The Trouble Had Just Begun

**Chapter 1: The Trouble Had Just Begun**

~*~*~*~*~

_"What is this place?"_

_Ginga thought to himself while he was standing in the middle of nowhere. He looked around trying to know where he was, but the only thing he saw was darkness, just darkness. "Creepy..."  
__  
Suddenly, he heard something likes the sound of beys colliding. The sound was familiar, Ginga didn't know why, until he saw a light coming from a distance, and..._

_"Is that... Phoenix?" Ginga surprised "It must be Dad!" He sprinted toward the light. But the closer he came, the more worried he could feel. When he got a closer look, he was completely shocked. The phoenix was tied up with some unknown creature's tails, struggling to get free. Ginga couldn't see the creature, except the red eyes glowing in the dark._

_"Who are you..." The creature asked with a deep, creepy voice and turned his head towards Ginga "... human?" He squeezed the phoenix with his tails, made the battered firebird cried out in pain._

_"Let the phoenix go!" Ginga yelled. The only thing he concerned at that moment was: If the phoenix was in this state, probably his dad would be the same. 'Where is Dad?'. He couldn't see Ryusei anywhere, which made him worried even more._

_T__he creature looked at that red-haired boy in boredom. "You're wasting my time, little brat..." Then he whipped one of his tails, striking toward Ginga. In a flip of a second, Ginga saw something red covered the tail and the smell of... 'Blood!'_

~*~*~*~*~

"AHHHHHHH!"

Ginga woke up with a start, panted and sweat covered his face. He sat up and realized that he was still in his room, at midnight. "It... It's just a dream..." he sighed in relief, "a nightmare..." He buried his face in his hands, and he smelled the blood again.

"What!" his eyes widened, he looked at his palms and saw nothing. The smell had gone, like it was just his imagination.

Ginga laid down and closed his eyes, still wondered about that nightmare. 'What happened?... What is that creature? ...Why did he attack Phoenix?...'. The image of the battered phoenix and the blood-covered tail still confused him when he drifted into sleep afterward.

_'What's that all about...?'_

~*~*~*~*~

"Go Sagittario!"

"Nearly enough, Kenta! Unicorno!"

All of the kid gathered at Madoka's B-Pit, watching the battle between Kenta and Masamune. It looked like Masamune took the advantage, but Kenta, whose skill was really improving, could easily fight back and defeat him.

"It looks like I'm the winner!" Masamune said when Unicorno knocked Sagittario into the air, nearly out of the arena

"Don't even think about it! Sagittario, Diving Arrow!" Sagittario began to caught fire, spinning faster and faster, striking directly at Unicorno

"What! Unicorno!"

Sagittario collided with Unicorno, created an explosion. When the dust settled, the two beys were lying on the dish defeaded.

"Man! I lost again!" Masamune groaned with disbelief as he grabbed his bey.

"It's just a draw! You didn't lose!" Kenta said, really satisfied that he could battle Masamune in equal.

"Well, the draw means "I'm a loser"! For me!" Everybody laughed at that explanation, making his face turned red "That's not funny!"

"Okay, okay!" Ginga smirked and pulled out Pegasis "It's my turn. Who's next? Or what about you, our "little loser"?"

It made the kid laugh even louder, except for Masamune. "That's it! You're going to die Ginga!" he barked, really wanted to teach Ginga a lession.

"Ready! 3!"  
"2!"  
"1!"  
"Go Shoot!"

The kid watched in excitement as two strong bladders joined the battle. Everyone felt it would had been perfect if everyday had gone like this.

_But that would never happened._

After few minutes of battle, Ginga felt that something was wrong. Each time he heard the sounds of two beys collided, that feeling was increase. Something was wrong, but he couldn't remember.

Masamune noticed that Ginga didn't focus on the battle. _'My chance!' _"Unicorno! Lightning Sword Flash!" Unicorno's special attack nearly sent Pegasis out of the edge. "Ginga! Could you pay a little attention? I'm going to win here!"

Ginga snapped out of confusion just in time to control Pegasis pushed Unicorno back. He shook his head, turned his attention into the battle. _'I can think about it later. Right now I have a game to settle here!'_

"Go, Pegasis! Star Gazer!"

Pegasis shot into the sky, prepared to defeat Unicorno. But before the attack could complete, an illusion suddenly turned up right in front of Ginga: _a single drop of blood falling from the dark, to the crimson puddle on the ground..._

_'Ah!' _he gasped. That was the feeling he had forgotten... the nightmare last night. At that moment, he lost Pegasis's control, made it crashed Unicorno in a big dust cloud. When the dust settled, the bey had been defeaded was Pegasis while Unicorno still spinning.

The kid's eyes widened in surprises. No one would ever believe that Ginga would lose because of distraction. They started looking at him when he took his bey back. Their look made Ginga felt so embarrassing.

"What's wrong? This is the first time you lost like this!" Masamune said "and it's really not funny."

"Yeah, that was unusual for you. Are you okay?" Kenta worried

"I'm fine. Really! Nothing's happening!" Ginga lied. How could he tell his friends about that? The nightmare last night, the bad feeling he had got when he battled, and that "insane" illusion? He thought it was not the right time to say it, but he didn't know why.

Of course no one believed him, especially Kyouya. He kept staring at Ginga, his arm crossed. "Are you sure about that? And don't even think about getting out of here without answering my question!" he said, a little threat in his voice.

Ginga sighed _'Could you stop that? It's just like you're reading my mind...' _he thought. Then he looked at Kyouya "Really, I-"

"GUYS!" the sound coming from the doorway interrupted their conversation. They saw a frightened Yuu running up to them.

"Yuu, what are you doing here!" Madoka asked "And-" she trailed off when something caught her eyes. Yuu was carrying something in his arms, an exhausted animal with dirt and scratches all of his body. "HOKUTO!"

Everyone was shocked. Hokuto! "What... happened?"

"I don't know. I just found him like this when I was coming here!" Yuu responded.

Ginga looked at Hokuto in worried expression "Hokuto! Hokuto! Wake up!" It seemed like Hokuto didn't acknowledge Ginga's call yet, but a moment later, he started to shiver and open his eyes.

"... Where... am... I?" he asked, his voice was so weak that worried everyone.

"This's Madoka's house. Yuu found you and brought you here. But... what happened to you?" Kenta asked.

"Talk... about it... later..." he coughed, then he turned his gaze to Ginga. "You... have... to hurry... Ginga,... Ryusei... he's... in danger..."

"No..." Ginga started to feel horror. _'It can't be...'___

'That nightmare was real...'

~*~*~*~*~


	2. Sudden Attack

**Chapter 2: Sudden Attack**

_~*~*~*~*~_

"Hokuto! What do you mean? What's wrong with my father?"

Before Hokuto could answer, something suddenly slashed through the air, cut off their talk again. They appalled as they saw that was a black dagger, stabbed into the ground in a few seconds before it disappeared into smoke. Kyouya, who remained calm, immediately spotted a figure in the shadow of the doorway, where the dagger came from.

"Who's there?" he yelled.

The figure answered him by stepping out of the dark, completely revealed. It was a shadow in the form of human. When it walked towards the stunned kids, the shadow started to transform in a shape of a bey. As it was completed, that bey increased its speed and striked directly at them.

Without thinking, Kyouya aimed Leone at that bey and ripped it to shreds in a fierce tornado. There was nothing left of it when the tornado vanished into thin air.

"Is that the one that attacked you, Hokuto?" he asked as he called Leone back.

"Yeah, but... he's not alone..."

And as if answering him, Madoka's laptop started ringing unexpectedly. She opened it and wondered "A call from... Hikaru!"

The kid quickly moved to her and saw Hikaru came up on the screen, panicked "Guys! Someone's attacking us!"

They were horrified. How could that happen in such a short time?

"Hikaru! Calm down! What's going on in there?" Ginga almost yelled at her, apparently he was the one who needed to calm down.

"I don't know! But I lost Tsubasa, Yuki and Ryusei!" she caught her breath "Please hurry! I don't think-" she couldn't finish her sentences. Something interrupted her talk, making the screen noise – she was attacked!

"Hikaru! Hikaru! ... Damn it!" he couldn't control his temper anymore. Everything Hokuto said were true.

"That's… what I tried to tell you, Ginga… hurry…" Hokuto urged him, hopefully it wasn't too late to stop it.

"But…" he really confused. He needed to go to help his father, but the attack of the shadow hesitated him - that would happened again in here.

"Don't worry! I'll stay here!" Masamune knew exactly what Ginga concerned about. "Those smoky idiots can't harm us as long as I'm here!"

Benkei agreed "Yeah, I'll stay too! Just go!"

Ginga looked at his friends, both worries and thankfulness shown on his face. "Ok… thanks guys…" then he got out of the B-Pit, and rushed to WBBA with all his strength.

"I'm going with him!" Kenta said as he followed Ginga, ignoring everybody's cried out of surprise. He knew it might be dangerous, but he wanted to help Ginga.

"That idiot Kenta!" Kyouya barked "Nobody leave! I'll go!" With that, he left the B-Pit and the other kids to catch up with those two.

_~*~*~*~*~_

Ginga ran as fast as he could the street, ignored all the curses from the drivers when he crossed the roads like crazy. He kept repeating something in his mind, didn't notice that he was passing the busy intersection.

"Ginga! Look out!" Someone yelled, just in time to made him realized that. He jumped on the sidewalk, avoided getting hit by sea of cars. Then he looked back and saw Kenta and Kyouya was running on his side.

"Don't... be... so reckless..." Kenta panted, it was hard for him to catch Ginga with his speed "It's... dangerous..."

"What are you doing here?"

"We're going to help you!" Kyouya answered "Is there something wrong with that?"

"You guy don't... Nevermind! Just hurry up!" Ginga continued his running, nearly jumped over all the drivers, leaving their curses behind again.

Kenta and Kyouya exchanged their look. What was wrong with him? Why was he so rush like that? Without a choice, they had to run after Ginga, whose thing kept repeating in his mind:

_'Dad, please tell me that you're okay...'_

~*~*~*~*~

They felt like it took them forever to arrived to WBBA. It still looked normal from the outside, but maybe that was just the silence before the storm.

"It doesn't look like someone attacked this place." Kenta said as they entered the main hallway.

He was wrong. Right after he said that, an explosion suddenly ignited from their left side as they heard someone shouted:

"Aquila! Shining Tornado Buster!"

Tsubasa! They headed that way to see Tsubasa just executed his special move to ripped three black beys apart, the same kind of bey at Madoka's house.

"Guys? How did you-?"

"Later, Tsubasa! Where're the others?"

"I don't know! But they really have a big trouble!" As to confirm what he had just said, those black beys started re-forming again and flew in front of them without anyone control, but Aquila blocked their attack. "Go help them!"

"Then we have to split up!" Kyouya said "Ginga! Go to help your father!"

_~*~*~*~*~_

Hikaru was struggling with those beys like Tsubasa, but it was harder. They kept attacking over and over, gave her no time to even take a breath.

"This is so annoying! Aquario!"

The blue bey attacked again as it attempted to tear them up. But when Aquario battled, one of the black beys got rid of it and striked directly at the undefended blader.

Suddenly, a green bey shot through the air from behind her and hit that bey, sending it backward. She turned her head to look at the green-haired boy running up to her.

"Hikaru! Are you okay?" Kyouya asked.

She nodded in grateful. Again, before she could thank him for his help, those re-formed beys spun to knock them down at once.

But when they collided with Leone and Aquario, something strange was happened. They started wobbling in a moment; then without making a sound, they disappeared, left nothing but a dark smoke behind.

That bewildered Kyouya and Hikaru. "That's odd..." they wondered while they recalled their bey, until Hikaru went to the corner of the room and picked up her tablet, which had not broken too much from the attack.

She tried making contact with Yuki as she fixed the tablet. When it was done, Yuki, along with Kenta, came up on the screen.

"Yuki, Kenta. You're still fine!"

"Yeah, but something's strange. Those beys at our place vanished when they were attacking us." Kenta replied.

"What? That just happened in here too!"

All of a sudden, they were startled as an unexpected explosion with the sound of glass shattering filled the entire building, almost made their ear dull. Smoke could be seen hovering from the main bey stadium as they turn to that direction.

"The main stadium?" Kyouya and Kenta said at the same time "So Ginga was there!"

All of them rushed out of their standing, headed to that place without wasting any seconds.

_~*~*~*~*~_

**A.N: Yayy! Another chapter! I know I have so much more to learn, so criticism is welcomed. Thanks for reading.**

**Anyway... Is that a cliffhanger?**


	3. An Explanation

Thanks you guys so much for reading my fic!

Ok, let's get to it! Chap 3! Warning: too much explosions I guess

* * *

**Chapter 3: An Explanation**

_~*~*~*~*~_

And about Ginga...

Right after the kids had splited up to find the others, he just headed straight to one place he had in his mind. Perhaps it was too easy to find out, but his sense kept telling him that his father was there.

And that wasn't good at all.

He emerged from the hall to find the bey stadium. And what surprised him was... nothing was there. In fact, the stadium was so empty and quiet that he could hear the sound of a needle falling down.

"It must be here..." he scratched his head, wondered if he was wrong.

He didn't have to wait for too long until something broke the silence. The supervising tower suddenly exploded, made the window shattered and spilled it across the stadium. A person, along with those pieces of glass, had landed to the ground with his red bey, still spinning after the fall.

"Dad!"

"Ginga?" Ryuusei gasped, he didn't expect to see him here.

In a moment when they were distracted, another blast surged toward them. The blast was protested just in time by Phoenix, but it still forced them to step backward.

"Please, could you make this more exciting?" someone taunted from above.

Standing there, on the broken window of the tower was a figure dressed in black. And this time, he was a real human, not the shadows that attacked them before.

"You've got your company?" he asked when he saw Ginga. His expression was hidden by the mask he was wearing, but it didn't hide his voice which showed his surprise. He chuckled: "Tch, you are even worse than before Ryuusei"

Ginga looked at the man, then at his father in deep confusion. _'What? Have they known each other?'_But Ryuusei lifted his hand and made a sign to tell Ginga to stand back before he could make any question.

"Leave him alone! He has nothing to do with this!"

"Really? I like to think you had called him for help." he said mockingly "Let's see if your fellow could do anything to stop this! Go, Shadow Kyuubi!"

His black and crimson bey, Kyuubi, began to spin faster as dark energy started surrounding it. Then the energy expanded and created two shadow "tails", shot directly at them.

"Phoenix! Burning Explosion!"

Fire erupted from Phoenix completely destroyed those tails before it could reach them. But when the red bey had finished the attack, two other tails shot out of Kyuubi and appeared through the smoke of the previous burned tails.

Unexpected the counter-attack, Ryuusei barely missed a brief second to control Phoenix returned. That was enough for those tails to seized their chance, immediately one of them tied him up and the other controlled Phoenix

"Dad!" Ginga cried out as his father as was being lifted up by the shadow tail, which tide him so tight that he couldn't move,

He ran over to his side but another tail from Kyuubi blocked his way. "Little brat, if you don't attempt to do anything then get out!" that man spoke "Unless you want to be in his situation!"

"Don't you dare touch him!" Ryuusei warned him as he struggled to get free with Phoenix.

The man started to feel annoying "Shut it, you stubborn fool!" Obeyed his order, the tail squeezed his victim harder like it could break human's bone, made him cried out in pain.

"Let him go, you bastard!" Ginga screamt in fear and anger. Everything appeared just like his nightmare, and if he didn't do something, then the worst scenario would happened. He pulled out his bey and aimed at Kyuubi.

"Ginga! Don't do it!" Ryuusei yelled.

"Go, Pegasis!" Pegasis shot toward Kyuubi and attacked at full force. The shadow tails faded as the black and crimson bey had to gather the energy that was separated outside to prevent Pegasis's attack.

The tail which held Ryuusei also disappeared, made him fell to the ground. Ginga caught him and saw that he had several minor injuries, and he was breathing heavily.

"Pegasis! Big Bang Tornado!" Furiously, Ginga used his special move to attack Kyuubi, sending it to the wall in a huge explosion. When the dust settled, Kyuubi was barely spinning with the pale dark energy.

The man was shocked; he didn't expect that little brat had enough power to fight back. Then it hit him – the brat's bey, Pegasis! He looked at Ginga and instantly spotted the symbol of Pegasis on his headband.

His frown slowly turned into a smirk and he laughed maniacally. "The Pegasis's Wielder! I should have known that! How ironic!"

His words again puzzled Ginga's thought. But before he could say anything, the sound echoed from the entered hallway interrupted the battle.

"Guys!" Ginga recognized his friends as they were rushing to him.

"Wow, your companies have increased!" the man said, caused the kids to look up "Looks like I have to run away now!"

The bey returned and spun on his hand, made him darker with the shadow its created. Without hesitating, Pegasis emerged to stop them but no avail; the white and blue bey just went through it.

The eyes on the man's mask glowed with bloody red light in the shadow and stared at them, especially at Ginga and Ryuusei, his whisper filled the area: "This will be interesting...". Then he disappeared without any trace, there was no sign of him to show he was here except the damaged stadium.

Everyone was dumbfounded in a moment, until Ryuusei couldn't take the silence as he tried to stand up from the fall, slowly gained his strength.

"Dad, be careful..." Ginga said as he supported him

"I'm fine. But how did you...?"

"Hikaru had told us, but the first one was Hokuto..." His father's eyes widened as he heard of Hokuto. "A shadow attacked him when he was getting here..."

Ryuusei's reaction was obvious for him to realized "Dad! He's the one who did this! Who is he? Why did he attack you?"

"That's not a wise decision Ginga! It's dangerous!" his voice was strained as he said. This whole thing was dangerous enough to threat anyone's life who gets involved; he didn't want that happened again.

But Ginga couldn't ignore it "I just want to help you! Please tell me!" he pleaded

Ryuusei looked at him then at the kids, who was still watching them talking. It took him awhile to make the decision. "In that case..." he sighed "let's call the others. This long story needed everybody to know it."

He smiled sadly as the kids stared at him in disbelief "C'mon, hurry up before I change my mind..." he tried to make a joke to comfort them, and even himself

'_Ginga was right... I couldn't hold this secret any longer...'_

~*~*~*~_*~_

"Hagane Ginga?"

The masked man, Kyuubi, was in some place that looked like a secret sanctuary in a mountain. It seemed like no one had entered here for a long time, which could explain why this place was covered in a thick layer of dust. Spider webs and wild plants grew everywhere, left only a small area which was still in the normal state – a carving of a nine-tailed fox with an X-shaped scar on its forehead on the wall behind him.

"Yes, Master Kyuubi. He's the only son of your archenemy, and the wielder of Pegasis." A boy bowed to him as he confirmed the information he gave earlier.

"Hmp... No wonder..." the man said as he remembered the similarities between Ginga and Ryuusei. "Tch, another Hagane's brat!"

He walked around, his hands grabbed behind his back "According to you, that kid have been wielding Pegasis for two years" he picked an old rat skull up the ground "And now he's the strongest blader in the world, right? That means he have replaced you too."

The boy didn't answer, but his silence confirmed it again.

Kyuubi played the skull in his hand. "Okay, you can leave now. I'm staying here for a little bit."

"Yes, Master."

As his servant obeyed and left the sanctuary, he turned his back to face the fox carving on the wall. The red eyes on the carving and on his mask kept staring at each other. He held the rat skull in his hand, and then he clenched his fist, crushed the skull into dust and let them filtered through his fingers.

'_Fifteen years had passed since you sealed me... I don't think you could hold this secret any longer, Ryuusei…'_

~*~*~*~*~

**Finished chapter 3! XD**

**By the way, I choose the name "Kyuubi" doesn't mean I'm a fan of Naruto. You will know the reason in the next chapters.**

**P.s: Can you guess who is Kyuubi's servant? Hint: Everybody knows him *laugh***


	4. The Tragic Past

**I'm back! And I'm very very very sorry for the delay! A lot of things happened and I completely forgot this story... until now =.="  
****Again, thanks for R & R! Enjoy this chapter!  
****Warning: This is the longest chapter I've ever written. I have no idea why...**

* * *

**Chapter 4: The Tragic Past**

_~*~*~*~*~_

"Man! How did they manage to mess this place up?" Masamune's voice echoed in the stadium as he tried to get through its ruin, follow him were Madoka, Yuu and Benkei. "They're just smoke. Did you guy really stop them?" he grumbled.

"It's not just the smoke, their boss was here too!" Yuki protested when Masamune's group entered the main room where everyone was gathering. "And it was just a single blow."

It immediately made Masamune shut up. "Eh... sorry. Are you guy okay?" he changed the subject.

"That guy suddenly disappeared when he was attacking us, so I guess we're fine." Tsubasa answered, but then he glanced at Ryuusei "... well, most of us..."

Everybody turned their attentions at Ryuusei – 'the cause' of the attack, but they remained silent. After a while, Hokuto, who was resting on Madoka's arm and looked much better than the ragged bundle Yuu had found in the morning, broke the silence

"You're his real target... Why?" he said.

"There's only one reason - revenge", then Ryuusei added "Actually... I should be the one who've done it..."

They didn't respond, but in their mind they were astonished. That answer was something out of their expectation – and he knew it. _'They'll be more surprised'_ he thought. He still hesitated when he turned his gaze at Ginga, the boy's worried expression made him clenched his heart. _'Just... how can he accept this horrible truth?'_

He closed his eyes and forced the memories to return again. It took a lot of efforts for him, because he has never wanted to remember the most painful moment of his life...

"That person... Fifteen years ago, he attacked Koma Village..."

_~*~*~*~*~_

_[Flashback]_

_The scene was devastating._

_Many houses were destroyed entirely, while others had large chunks missing. Some places were ruined and burnt in a mess. A lot of people were captured by numerous freaky shadow figures coming out from nowhere._

_Some of the village's bladers were lying around, most of them were unconscious, others were injured. They had been trying desperately to stop the mysterious intruder to no avail – their beys were smashed into pieces by his black beys materialized from the smoke around his long black coat, and he hadn't done anything yet._

_He was standing in the middle of the field, his eyes gazed at the temple on the mountain and filled with satisfaction. "Finally, I can have it..." he slowly walked to the temple._

_One of the injured blader shot his damaged bey at the intruder, but it was destroyed again by the black bey. The intruder grabbed him at his collar and lifted him off the ground. "Why don't you just surrender? Your pathetic move is no match for me." he snarled._

_"Yeah, no match for you!" the blader spat "But that would give him enough time to return!"_

_"Huh?!"_

_Suddenly, he sensed a blast of energy flying toward him. This one was different – more powerful than the bladers's, really forced him to dodge it and dropped his victim to the ground. He narrowed his eyes and saw a blue and silver bey spinning in front of him._

_"Stop it!" someone shouted. It was another blader, wearing on his head was a blue bandana with the symbol of a flying horse._

_"Ryuusei! You're back!" the blader exclaimed in delight. Ryuusei nodded and gestured for him to help the others._

Looking skeptically at Ryuusei, the intruder spoke "You're the strongest one at this place. 'Pegasis's Wielder', right? Then let me introduce myself, my name's Kyuubi."

_"Enough chitchat! And get out of this village now!" he commanded._

_"Hey, that's rude to talk like that to a visitor" he mocked "Perhaps I should teach you a little lesson". He raised his hand and tossed forward. Follow the order, a lots of black beys struck at his enemy. But Ryuusei didn't flinch. "Pegasis!" In a blink of an eye, all of them were wiped out by a fierce tornado erupted from the blue bey._

_"So the shadow figure was your decoys to lure me out the village" he scowled "You've done all of this to 'visit' The Forbidden Bey L-Drago, am I correct, 'visitor'?!"_

_"You're good, brat" the intruder mused; he knew the shadow he used to capture the people was eliminated by Ryuusei as well. "Okay, looks like a little entertainment is worth it. Time to play, Shadow Kyuubi." He pulled out his real bey – a black one, with nine dark crystals on the crimson clear wheel, and a symbol of a nine-tailed fox on the face bolt. Ryuusei did the same thing._

_"Ready then! 3!"  
__"2!"  
__"1!"  
__"Go Shoot!"_

_The explosion when the two beys collided nearly blew them off the ground. Kyuubi raised his eyebrow when he stood up as the beys were pushing each other, sending sparks into the air. He smirked, this thing started interesting him. "Kyuubi! Tail Strike!"_

_The dark aura around his bey shot a shadow tail and whipped at Pegasis. It barely avoided the whip as the tail smashed the ground with powerful hits. Across the battle field, Ryuusei was quite impressed 'I shouldn't underestimate him' "Pegasis! Storm Bringer!" The tail exploded by his attack, and again the field was full of furious wind, swept away all the rubble of the village._

_'This is not good' he thought. Another attack would destroy this place for good. He had to do something. And much to Kyuubi's surprised, he ran away._

_"Escape, huh?" Kyuubi taunted "Is that the best thing you can do?!" Filled with aggression, he chased after Ryuusei without realized he just fulfilled his purpose._

_More shadow tails kept striking at Ryuusei and Pegasis, made him struggling to dodge it. Kyuubi started to get impatient. "Let's make this done!"_

_"Shadow Kyuubi! Special Attack, Crescent Moon Shockwave!" The air around them trembled as several crescent arrows materialized from thin air. They slashed Ryuusei with an incredible speed and knocked him to the ground._

_'And this is terrible...' Ryuusei worried._

~*~*~*~*~

_At another place, the villagers were gathered. Most of them were elders, women and children, and they were helping the injured villagers of Kyuubi's attack._

_Among them was a young woman in a white dress, who looked very anxious, trying to comfort the crying baby in her arms. His big hazel eyes looked at her and stopped crying as she began to sing for him and slowly carried him back and forth. He pulled himself into her lap and cooed quietly, his mother smiled at him._

_"Don't worry too much unless you want to hurt yourself, Chiyo" an old lady said came to the woman "He won't be happy about that. And besides, you have to take care of your child"_

_"I know that, Yuuko-san..." Chiyo sighed "It's just... he's too reckless sometimes" she stroked the boy's head, her fingers combed through his red hair "I hope Ginga doesn't inherited that personality of his."_

_A soft giggle came from Ginga's throat as he felt Yuuko's hand tickled his stomach. "You know what they said: like father like son." Then she tapped Chiyo's shoulder. "I guess that'll be good"_

_"Hopefully..." Chiyo said, brushed her long hair behind her ear._

_Suddenly, everybody startled by a wail cried through the house. Yuuko realized it came from Ginga, the boy was crying desperately. At the same time, Chiyo was clutching her chest and winced in pain._

_"Chiyo! Chiyo! Are you okay?" Yuuko frightened._

_Chiyo's eyes snapped open and she slowly stood up, her face paled with horror. "It can't be..." She immediately gave the boy to the old lady "Take care of Ginga for me, Yuuko-san! I have to go!"_

_"What happened?!" Yuuko asked "Where are you going?!"_

_"I can feel it... Ryuusei, he's in danger!" she ran away, ignored Yuuko's cried out of surprised._

~*~*~*~*~

_A barrage of arrows blasted at Ryuusei again, made him barely got to his foot._

_"Pretty tough for a little boy" Kyuubi said, "Tougher than any other person I've ever met. But it won't last long"_

_Ryuusei did nothing but grimace. He succeeded in bringing Kyuubi to this place, a hidden valley far from the village, to reduce the damage. But he still couldn't affect him – that person hadn't had a scratch._

_"Hmp, a beautiful place for you to die," Kyuubi looked around "Do you have any last words?"_

_"If you really are powerful like this," he asked "Then why do you want the L-Drago?"_

_Kyuubi chuckled "Have you ever heard about 'the absolute power'? My precious Kyuubi is only one-step-closer to achieve the goal that anyone in this world could ever imagine. And the L-Drago suits it beautifully."_

_"Don't worry. If you surrender now, I'll choose not to kill you, and maybe you can become my loyal servant. What do you think?" he added_

_"Never!" Ryuusei spat "If that is your reason, then I'll do anything to stop you!" Both of them were unable to notice a figure was watching them from a distance, her face was mixed with fear and worry._

_She heard Kyuubi's voice: "Then prepare to die!" His bey attacked with the crescent arrows, and one of them slashed at Ryuusei's shoulder._

_'Ryuusei!' she gasped. Blood poured out from the wound as he clutched his shoulder tightly._

_Unfortunately, Kyuubi could hear her voice even though she lowered it. "Someone's peeking! Kyuubi!" The bey's shadow tail immediately grabbed her and pulled her out of the hiding spot_

_"Chiyo!" Ryuusei surprised as the tail brought the struggling woman to its master "Let her go!"_

_"I guess this is your beloved wife," Kyuubi smirked when he looked at Ryuusei "I envy you, you really have such a beautiful girl," he ran his fingers along her cheek, but jerked it back when she snapped at it "and feisty too."_

_"You..." Ryuusei growled, his eyes filled with anger._

_But then Kyuubi forcefully threw Chiyo at the wall, made her yelled in pain and felt to the ground. "I'll change the deal. If you can beat me, then you can save your lover!"_

_"You bastard!" he screamed. Full of rage, he attacked Kyuubi till the last drop of his strength. Kyuubi flinched a little bit as Pegasis fiercely blew his bey away with an amazing power._

_"It's not over!" Ryuusei shouted as Pegasis flew into the sky and dove directly at Kyuubi "Pegasis! Shooting Star Attack!" The blue bey collided with the crimson one, blinded the entire area by a massive explosion._

_Ryuusei shielded his eyes from the blinding light. But when he opened it, he was completely stunned: Kyuubi was still spinning!_

_"Nice try! You're the only one who can force me to use this!" Kyuubi shouted "Shadow Kyuubi! Deadly Attack: Nine Fragments!"_

_An energy blast of Kyuubi's aura hit Ryuusei, made him skidded along the ground. A silhouette of a nine-tailed fox appeared as nine crystals separated from the bey and levitated to create the tails. They slowly grew bigger till the size of an average dagger._

_He knew that he would be done for, he couldn't survive from this attack! He shut his eyes tight as he heard the shooting crystals, and waited for the pain. He did in fact hear the crystals stabbed rapidly at human's flesh, but he felt no pain whatsoever._

_Ryuusei opened his eyes_ _and they suddenly widened in shocked. Before him stood Chiyo, her arms outstretched protectively. "Ch-Chiyo?" he choked out as Chiyo dropped to her knees and then slumped forward into his arms._

_"Ryuusei..." She whispered hoarsely "Y-you're...still... alright... " she slowly went unconscious._

_"Chiyo?" he asked, giving her a little shake. But then he looked at her, his heart was sank in horror. Her back... it was full of numerous wounds and covered by a lot of blood. Chiyo blocked the attacks using her own body!_

_"Chiyo! Please wake up! Don't do this!" he said weakly._

_Then Ryuusei heard a whistle, and realized Kyuubi was still here "Sacrificing herself for her husband, how poetic."_

_He gently laid her down on the ground, his face darkened. "This madness must end now..." he said, his voice was shaking. Kyuubi felt something was strange, as he saw a light blue aura appeared from Ryuusei_

_"Wh-What?!"_

_Ryuusei lifted his head, his face contorted with bitterness and rage. "I'm not letting anyone else get hurt by you, you bastard!" His body burst into a shining blue halo, force Kyuubi stepping backward in fear – he never felt anything like that before._

_Surprisingly, Pegasis was glowing with the same shining aura, as it spun faster and slammed at the crimson bey. Kyuubi called his bey back but he failed, the aura expanded and swallowed both of them._

_A magical seal appeared beneath Pegasis and Kyuubi as the ground began to crack. Kyuubi's instinct kept repeating in his mind, told him to escape immediately. But he could only watch in desperation as the seal was brighter and brighter._

_"You're also the only one who can force me to do this" Ryuusei bitterly said, tears forming in his eyes "Storm Pegasis! Lost Magic Attack: Final Judgment!"_

_And Koma Village's sky filled with bright blue light as the seal exploded, completely captured Kyuubi and his black and crimson bey inside. His agonized scream nearly split the village before it disappeared forever._

_The shining light started to fade and exposed the remain of the battle. Everything was ruined again, but something else was added. On the field still left the black mark of Pegasis's seal, along with Shadow Kyuubi's shattered pieces. Its face bolt had a new X-shaped scratch – looked exactly like the mark of a brand new nine-tailed fox sculpture from the wall across the field. But its owner was nowhere to be seen._

_Ryuusei just stood there, clutching his wounded shoulder. He kept staring at the field, showing no emotion. Then he snapped to reality as he heard a bone-chilled cry behind him._

_He turned back and saw a group of villager was here, stunned in fear. Among them was Yuuko, holding a crying baby in her arm, and desperately calling a name that he knew it too well._

_"Chiyo?! CHIYO!" Ryuusei ran to the woman and knelt down beside her. She was barely regaining consciousness._

_"Y-Yuuko-san..." Holding her in his arm, Ryuusei looked at the old lady, hoping for an answer. But Yuuko slowly shook her head, she knew it was too late for Chiyo. That attack was enough to kill her immediately, but somehow, she managed to keep herself alive... just for a moment._

_Her bloody hand slowly trailed along his face, wiping away a tear sliding down. "You're... still reckless... as usual..." she smiled softly._

_"Chiyo..."_

_"I-I'm sorry... Ryuusei..." she said "For leaving... both you and Ginga... behind..." she coughed up blood_

_"Please... Chiyo... don't do this to me..." he couldn't hold back his tears "Please... hang on..." he held her hand tightly._

_She slightly gazed at the now blurry figure of Ryuusei, as a single tear fall from her eyes. She'd never want to die, but she couldn't do anything to stop this "I-I'm... sorry..." her voice was weaker "Take care... of Ginga... for me..."_

_"I... promise..."_

_She smiled weakly "Thanks..." her eyes closed as she drew the last breath of her life. "I love you... Ryuusei ..." she went limp in his arms._

_"Chiyo! Chiyo!" Ryuusei cried, shaking her slightly, "No... Don't do this..." He desperately clutched Chiyo's body against his chest "Don't do this to me..."_

_The villagers were crying silently, they were unable to witness this heart-breaking moment. And Yuuko was hugging the little boy, unsure if she was soothing his cry or her own cry._

_Ryuusei was still embracing Chiyo, his tears slowly landed on her eyes..._

~*~*~*~*~

At that valley, there were two people died.  
_  
Chiyo had passed away, but she hadn't known that... a part of Ryuusei died with her…_

~*~*~*~*~

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**My subconscious: Okay! Question time! *looking at me* Hey, don't cry! You're the author, you did that to them! Why do you have to cry?!**  
**Me: *sniff* I can't help myself... *sniff* It's so touching... *sniff***  
**My subconscious: Geez! Well then since the author of this story can't make any questions for you, I think I'll do it =D**

**1. Should I change the genre of this one to Family/Tragedy?**

**2. Should I use this length to other chapter?**

**3. And what do you think about this chapter?**

**See ya!**


	5. Dangerous Reunion

**I'm back again! =D  
****Right now, I'm trying my best to finish this story as soon as possible - it's really a big deal, you know =.="**

**WARNING (again): I really have a feeling that this chapter is gonna be a BIG jerk!  
****Prepare yourself! You've been warned!  
******

* * *

**Chapter 5: Dangerous Reunion**

*~*~*~*~*~*

"Oh... my... god..."

That was the only thing they could say at the moment. Some of them were crying, and needless to say they were staring at Ryuusei with complete shock. That incident was not the one they ever expected to know, it was really painful.

"... I'm so sorry..." Hokuto finally said, breaking the silence again.

"It's okay..." Ryuusei lowered his head. It had nearly taken all of his willpower he could muster not to break out into tears when he finally finished. He didn't want to depress everyone even more – especially Ginga, since the story would definitely take its toll on him. And it _was_, indeed_._

"No... It can't be..." Ginga looked at his father in disbelief, a fine tremor going through his body. "You... you'd kept that secret from me... for many years..." Tears already coursed down his face as he said with a hint of sadness, and somewhat anger, in his voice. "Dad, how could you...?"

"I... I don't want to make you depressed about that..." Ryuusei protested; yet it was just one of the reasons for him not to tell Ginga about it.

"But that was Mom!" Ginga yelled angrily "Why didn't you tell me? Am I not supposed to know the truth?" His tears continued to fall as he sobbed uncontrollably.

"Ginga..." Seeing the boy's reaction made Ryuusei's words stop dead in their track, the feeling of guilt overwhelmed his mind.

_Unfortunately, _that feeling wasn't last long, though.

"Am I interrupting?!" a voice suddenly cut through the tension in the room, snapping everyone out of the trance.

Coming from a figure stood at the doorway, the voice was so freaky familiar that all of them jerked their heads up. Their eyes grew wide in surprised, trying to make sure that they weren't hallucinating as they looked over the incoming figure.

"Anyway, back to business." the figure smirked. And this time, there was no mistake – it was him...

*~*~*~*~*~*

Staying in the sanctuary, Kyuubi laughed as he saw everyone's dumbfounded expression by the image he was watching. "Time to reclaim your glory, -"

*~*~*~*~*~*

"R-Ryuuga?!"

Obviously, his appearance had succeeded in temporally making them forget whatever had happened a few moments ago. Their attentions were now focusing only on him.

Kenta approached him in disbelief. Ryuuga, who was presumed to be dead, was here, before his eyes. "You're... alive!" he cried out in joy as he hugged the white-haired boy.

However, Ryuuga returned that moving reunion by shoving him to the ground violently "Get away, scum! I'm not talking to you!" he scowled, looking at Kenta in disgust.

" Ryuuga!" Ginga screamed with shock.

"Speaking of scum... Ginga!" Ryuuga spotted the red-haired boy "You and I will have a rematch!"

Ginga quickly brushed the tears on his face as he regarded his rival. "Ryuuga, wait! What ar-"

"Enough talk!" Ryuuga flung his arm forward. In a blink of an eye, his bey was shot directly at them with a powerful energy.

'Damn!' Ginga barely reacted and launched his bey at Ryuuga's. When the two bey collided, it created a huge blast, strong enough to blow everybody flying backward.

"Show them what we got, Shadow L-Drago!" Beginning its assault, the new L-Drago – a black bey with silver dragon patterns on the clear wheel – attacked Pegasis rapidly, giving Ginga no time to protest.

Ginga flinched. Something was different from his rival's moves, or apparently himself; it was more furious and vicious than before. "What's this for? Are you out of your mind?"

"Heck, no. I'm just following his order, that's all."

"Order? From who?"

The answer they'd received stunned all of them: "Master Kyuubi."

"Master?!" That was completely unusual, since his cocky and arrogant personality would hardly allowed him to listen to someone else, not to mention obeying. They looked at him with wide eyes, but only saw the wicked grin crossed his face.

"Don't believe it, huh? Watch this!" he shouted "L-Drago! Flying Shadow!" The silver bey glowed with dark energy and sent out a shadow "missiled" at Pegasis with an incredible speed. Being blown backward, the blue bey felt to the ground, barely spinning.

"What's the matter, No.1?! Lost your groove?" he taunted

"This is nonsense, Ryuuga! I don't want to fight you!"

"Then you lose, coward!" he executed another attack and struck at the blue bey with fierce, setting off a huge explosion.

When the dust cleared, Ryuuga raised his eyebrow a bit as he saw that Pegasis was holding L-Drago back. Across the field, Ginga started getting serious "If you really want to do this... Pegasis!" The blue bey counterattacked and repelled its enemy, quickly wobbled it under the attack.

"Pegasis! Big Bang Tornado!" Pegasis spun rapidly in a circle, multiplied its power the clashed at L-Drago with the special move. The impact created another big explosion, made everyone shield their eyes.

_'Did it work?'_Ginga thought.

Suddenly, they heard a small chuckle from Ryuuga, which quickly turned into a maniacal laugh as he laughed his head off.

"You fool! Did you think that attack would work?!" he casted a scornful look at Ginga "Guess again!"

The cloud slowly faded away, but a noisy buzzing sound was increasing. Then L-Drago, spinning surprisingly fast, shot out from the fading smoke and collided at Pegasis.

"L-Drago! Rising Destroyer!"

The silver bey lowered its wheel then dove under Pegasis's, ignited an energy burst and flipped it to the air uncontrollably. Surrounding by shadow, L-Drago released a series of projectiles, fired at its enemy rapidly, narrowly broke it apart.

"Pegasis!" Ginga cried as he watched his bey was overwhelmed by L-Drago.

Ryuuga smirked "Okay, you can have it back!" When Pegasis almost touched the ground, the silver bey shot another wave of dark energy, blew Pegasis directly at Ginga.

"Ginga!" everyone exclaimed when he was blown skidding on the ground. Without hesitation, the bey emerged again and attacked him head on.

Kyouya immediately pulled out his bey and shot at L-Drago, attempted to block his way "Leone! Stop him!"

"Unicorno!" Masamune did the same thing.

Unfortunately, the shadow shot out four "missiles" before the two beys could reach the black one; each missile hit directly at them and their owner, easily sent them flying backward.

"Protecting him?! Such a weakling!" Ryuuga got annoyed "Whatever you attempt to do is useless!"

As he turned his attention back to the battle, he saw another bey flying toward him. "It's just wasting your time!" he rolled his eyes in boredom "Flying Shadow!"

But much to his surprise, and everybody's as well, his attack couldn't hit that bey. In fact, that yellow bey penetrated the shadow missile and collided at L-Drago with full force.

"Stop doing this, Ryuuga!" Kenta suddenly appeared beside Ginga, tears rimming in his eyes. Seeing his friend acting so cruel and merciless again, he couldn't take it anymore – he had to do something. "This is so wrong! Why are you doing this?"

Ryuuga stared at him; his red eyes gleamed with hatred and outraged. "You little brat!" he grimaced as Sagittario apparently pushed his bey backward "I shall destroy you!" L-Drago changed his target and attacked furiously, but to no avail. Strangely, its special moves couldn't affect the yellow bey, and the shadow was beginning to wane.

"How... do you do that?!" Ginga rose to his feet and looked at Kenta in astonishment.

"I don't know!" Kenta was wondering the same thing. It seemed like L-Drago moves were useless before Sagittario. Or...

As the two beys collided, he sensed something flickered at the silver one. It was faint at first, but eventually it was growing stronger like a signal. Then a weak voice appeared.

/Ken...ta.../

"Did you hear that?" Kenta nearly jumped at the whisper. But seeing the puzzling expression on Ginga as he looked at him, Kenta realized only he heard it.

Ginga"!" Kenta's eyes widened as the voice talked to him again. "L-Drago... L-Drago is under Kyuubi's control!"

"WHAT?!" There was a collective gasp as he finished the sentence.

"I can hear it! It's coming from the bey! He's... calling me for help!" he exclaimed "It's faint, but I can hear it!" He didn't know how L-Drago managed to make contact with him under this circumstance. And somehow, he was the only one who heard it.

/Master... was... worn out... couldn't fight back.../ the voice pleaded /Break... his... seal... Kenta... please.../

"I'll try!" he yelled. He could hear its relief before it became weaker and disappeared /Help... us.../

"What the hell are you babbling about?!" Ryuuga snarled in suspicion. "I've called you for help?! Such nonsense!" That thought had provoked him, as he expressed it by an amount of intense attack at the yellow bey. This time, it was effective.

The weakened shadow was still strong enough to push Sagittario and Kenta backward. However, something flew forward and hit the yellow bey, supporting it returned to the field and landed beside it.

"2 vs. 1, huh?!" Ryuuga narrowed his eyes at Ginga, who'd interfered his assault and was in time to catch Kenta. "You're just a coward anyway! Using that strategy is only for the weakling!"

"This is not a battle anymore!" Ginga shouted "Ryuuga, snap out of it!"

"Snap out of what?!" Ryuuga laughed "Do you really think you can defeat me with your pathetic efforts?!"

Ginga didn't reply. He knew only with his effort, there were no chances for him to succeed._If only with his effort._

He turned to face Kenta "Kenta, I think the reason why L-Drago called you for help is because... he trusts you - you can bring him back, and he knows it. Otherwise, why could you hear him while no one else could?" he said firmly "We have to do this together! That's the only way!"

"Uhm!" Kenta blinked for a few seconds, and then nodded in agreement. This idea was weird, but it was worth a try.

"Pegasis, Sagittario! Go!" they shouted as the two beys began to clash with L-Drago, eventually pushing the silver one backward.

Across the field, Ryuuga scowled at his situation. Pegasis was surprisingly powerful, and Sagittario's strange ability decreased all his chances of succeed the attack. Unless he did something soon, then failure would be inevitable.

"L-Drago!" The bey instantly enveloped in a dark energy and broke away as it recoiled the pair's assault. Spinning furiously, it returned the favor by effectively pressed them down, making them nearly impossible to hold it off.

'He still has that much power!' Ginga flinched as he noticed not even Sagittario could deflect L-Drago's unexpected increasing power. Even they had the advantage, they would apparently lose if Ryuuga successfully used his attack again.

"Kenta!" he brought up an idea...

The energy quickly surrounded Ryuuga as he gathered all his power to try knocking both Ginga and Kenta down at once. "Rising Destroyer!" Again, L-Drago rushed into attack the pair and knocked them to the sky. Just before executing his move, Ryuuga's eyes widened as he only saw Sagittario, yet no sign of Pegasis, above him.

"Pegasis!" Ginga exclaimed as the blue bey, which had escape from the special move, came out from nowhere and spun around L-Drago. The wind erupted from Pegasis as it spun faster and wobble its rival.

"This is over! Pegasis, Big Bang Tornado!"

"Sagittario! Diving Arrow!"

Letting loose their attack, Pegasis and Sagittario collided at the silver bey at the same time. No one could tell what's going on as they were temporally blinded by an array of wind and black energy as the collision exploded and expanded across the room.

When everything finally settled, they opened their eyes and surveyed the room immediately. Pegasis and Sagittario were still spinning, but both Ginga and Kenta had flown against the wall. Across the field, Ryuuga was lying face down with L-Drago laid next to him defeated.

"Ginga! Kenta!" everyone yelled as they tried to sit up. Leaning against the wall, they rubbed the back of their head and winced.

"Are you guys okay?" Yuuki and Yuu ran to their side, asking, while the other was just standing on the background.

"Yeah, I guess..." Ginga simply nodded as he noticed Kenta had already ran toward his lying rival, obviously worried sick about him. He couldn't suppress a sudden uneasiness, made him turned away from his friends. "I think I should check on him too." He tried to banish that thought from his mind and ran to Ryuuga.

Kenta had been shaking him for a while, yet he did not acknowledge the little boy's attempt to wake him. Wondering about his condition, Ginga knelled down beside him as he tried to lift Ryuuga over onto his back.

At the moment when Ginga touched him, Ryuuga's eyes snapped open he sprang to his feet; his right hand grabbed something that seemingly appeared out of nowhere...

"AHHH!" Everyone startled at the sudden scream coming from across the field. As they turned to the sound, they immediately gasped and felt sick to their stomach.

What they saw was really unexpected. Ginga was gripping the sharp blade of the knife in Ryuuga's hand, trying to stop it swing forward him. His face twisted in pain as the blade slowly cut his palms, letting the blood flowing down its hilt and dripping to the ground.

"Ginga!" they screamed and rushed to his side as fast as possible. Before they could make it, Ryuuga flung his arm harder and forced Ginga to lose his grip. The releasing blade gashed his hands again, made him staggered backward.

They heard a low giggle coming from Ryuuga as he finally stood up. However, the sound escaped from his mouth was definitely not him as it was unmistakably malicious and _familiar_.

"Kyuubi!"

"You're pretty good..." Kyuubi 's voice floated out from the white-haired boy, making them shivered in disgust. "So this will be your reward. Don't worry; I still have a lot of surprises for you..."

*~*~*~*~*~*

"... So get ready."

Kyuubi sneered as he watched his enemies through the image. It was deeply amusing to him; twisting his amazing plots for something that even more wonderful. He waved his hand and the image dispersed.

"Quite bad, that little brat was very useful. Well, it doesn't matter anyway." Summoning up another image, a sinister smile spread on his face as he brought forth a close-up of his new target.

"Now, let's see how interesting you really are, little Hagane..."

*~*~*~*~*~*

* * *

**Iza (my OC): Seriously!? Twisting the story like that, bringing Ryuuga back to life!? What the hell are you thinking!?  
****Me: Hey! I'll explain the reason why I did that on next chapter, okay!?  
****Iza: Fine! *grumble* You'd better finish it, I heard that you still have a lot of ideas to deal with this story!  
****Me: I know that, so stop threatening me! I'm working on chapter 6 now!**

**Later! (or Iza will kill me for sure *****gulp***)  
And thanks for reading! =D


	6. Puppet Show

**OMG! I'm behind schedule! *running & screaming in panic***  
**Again, thank you all for all the reviews I've received and for having so much patience with my story! Unfortunately, this chapter's freaking long - never knew why - so... that's all I can say! Enjoy!**

**WARNING: Contains blood/gore, cryptic nonsenses(?), and highly recommended "Don't do that to your parents!"**

* * *

**Chapter 6: Puppet Show**

_*~*~*~*~*~*_

_Ginga blinked open his eyes and realized he was lying on the floor. He slowly sat up and groaned as he felt an ache in his head._

"_Ugh..." he winced and rubbed his head, trying to ward it off when he looked around. He could tell he was surrounded by darkness, again. __Though he could not see any visible source of light, he could easily see his body.__ His eyes widened as he recognized how familiar this place was._

'_...What the heck is going on?' he thought 'Don't tell me-'_

"_Ah, it's you again!" a malicious voice suddenly came from behind him._

_Ginga startled and turned around, facing the source of the sound "Who's there?"_

_A figure was standing not too far from him. It merely took a step forward, revealing itself as it walked into his sight._

"_Hey, stop pretending like you've never seen me before. It's really hurt." it said with a false sad tone._

"_Kyuubi!" Ginga shouted, looking straight at the masked man._

"_By the way I compliment you for defeating that white brat. You did a really great job, although it still missed something, maybe a big 'finish' like what your father had done to me. That should be fun!"__ he continued as if he hadn't heard Ginga at all._

"_What?!" Ginga frowned "That's it! How could you be free?! There was no way you could do it only by your own effort!" he __said with suspicion._

"_But here I am, isn't that obvious? Don't you think that was just his cheap shot? That was because your pathetic father was never tough enough to stop me?" Kyuubi slightly __hissed at the last part of the statement._

"_Don't you dare insulting him!" Ginga snapped, his __eyes narrowed in anger._

"_Oh, our daddy boy's got angry!" The man gave out a shrill laugh that ached his ears. "What're you gonna do?! Wreck the shit out of me, like what god-damned moron did fifteen years ago, just to avenge his pathetic pride?!"_

"_You..." He couldn't bite back the growl that threatened dangerously at Kyuubi._

"_But hey," Kyuubi cut off "You still have time to chitchat with me__? Then you'll miss all the fun.__"_

_As he said so, an agonized scre__am suddenly split the black abyss surrounding them, made Ginga's heart __hammered against his ribcage__.__ Another shriek rent the air as many familiar voices cried out in pain._

_Ginga was trembling before he'd consciously decided to act. He immediately turned away from the man and raced through the shadow. As he followed the agonized cries of his friends, his fear increasing as he heard the scream terrifyingly disappeared._

_However, w__hen he finally did reach his destination__, __it took all of the strength he had to keep him from screaming__._

_The ground that lay be__fore him__ was spattered with blood__. It was scored and slashed in places, as though from something metal. Half way down the area, the thick crimson smears ended up at__ his friends, lying around in their own blood._

_Ginga was frozen in horror and terrified as their cold, pale faces pierced right through him with the hollow, lifeless eyes. __He saw lots of broken pieces of metal, which used to be his friends' beys, showing obvious signs of a final struggle, yet ending up scattering next to thei__r owner, sinking into their puddle of blood._

"_N-no..." he stammered, tears biting at his eyes as he shook his head in denial "I-It... can't..."_

"_Wow," Kyuubi showed up across from him, giggling madly at the red head "Witness their final pathetic efforts to fight for the last moment of life." He stepped closer until he was in the middle of the area "It was glorious!"_

"_H-How could you do that to them? Y-you monsters!" Hearing that word from Kyuubi was more than enough to make Ginga furious. He took his Pegasis, and, in a swift movement, shot directly at his enemy. However, Kyuubi didn't seem scared at all._

_When his bey reached its target, the sight before his eyes became unbelievable. __Kyuubi stood perfectly still at first, like that attack hadn't affected him. But then Kyuubi's body was nearly ripped apart as some invisible waves violently slashed his che__st, spitting his blood everywhere._

_Ginga recoiled in shock from what he saw. He didn't intent to put __a brutal and savage attack like that on__ Kyuubi, he even didn't know how could he do it. As if it wasn't horrified enough, the wound had left on that man looked exactly like the lying corpses'..._

_...the same X-shaped slash on the chest._

"_Monster?" Kyuubi chuckled, gripping his hand on the wound, "__You believe I'm the cause for this massacre? Ridiculous…__" He coughed, his blood seeped through the mask "Take a look at yourself..."_

_Ginga brought his gaze down at his body, and totally horrified at the sight. Its metallic smell told him that it wasn't an illusion - he was completely coated in fresh blood. He could see the warm, sticky substance was oozing across his hand, slowly pooling on the ground beneath him._

"_Who's the monster now, Ginga? __"What about you, __'m__urdere__r'__?__"_

_He felt onto his __knees and howled in terror as the reality finally hit him. Clutching his head, __the blood smearing on his face made his tears turn crimson. "No!" he cried out "Stop it! I'm not a murderer! I'm not! __I didn't do anyth__ing!" he kept repeating that endless plea over and over._

"_Why do you have to be surprised?" That sarcastic voice spoke again "After all, you're not so different... from me..." Ginga brought his head upward and saw the person before him slowly took the mask out._

_The face hidden behind the mask scared him for life._

*~*~*~*~*~*

"Ginga! Ginga, wake up!"

Ryuusei shook the boy vigorously but apparently he couldn't aware it; he was squirming in his bed, the covers twisted around him like a coil of chains. It looked like he was struggling with something in his nightmare, and he was apparently not winning.

"No! Stop it! I'm not a murderer! I'm not! I didn't do anything!" Ginga began to whimper, his voice was full of pain and despair.

"Murderer? Ginga, what's happening?" Ryuusei yelled frantically, shaking the boy by the shoulders, trying to snap him out of whatever insane world he was trapped in "Wake up!"

"AAAHHHHHHHH!" Ginga screamed out and flew his eyes wide open. He immediately shot up from the bed and panted heavily, his face was pale white. It took several bewildered seconds for him to focus and eventually recognize someone was sitting next to him, but that just frightened him even more.

Ryuusei halted upon seeing Ginga suddenly flinched away from him. The boy quickly crawled back like he was trying to protect himself, pure fear was written all over his face as he stared at his father.

"Ginga, calm down... It's just me..." he nearly whispered, feared that whatever he'd done next could scare the boy again. He relieved as Ginga's expression softened and the light had returned to his dull amber eyes.

"...D-Dad?" Ginga blinked, his voice cracked as it came out. He wiped the tears on his face, regaining his composure from the outburst. But even when the sight before him had become clear, he couldn't help but feel anxious as he tried to look away from his father.

"What's wrong?"

'_Annoying...'_ Ginga thought, grimacing at the question. Blinking suddenly, he stunned for a second _'Wait, did I just think that?'_ Holding the side of his head with his hand, he tried to erase that thought as he shook his head and focused his attention to his surrounding "No, it's nothing... But, where am I?"

"At the sickbay, in-"

"What?!" That information made him startle. "Wait a minute, what happened after the battle?"

"You don't remember?" Ryuusei worried "Ryuuga collapsed after finishing his words, but not too long before you followed him, suddenly felt unconscious. You really scared the hell out of everyone."

"I did?!" Ginga said. He slowly remembered everything: the sharp pain in his hands, the malicious voice floating in the room, then the sudden unbearable headache before everything went black. "So... how long have I been out?" he asked, looking at his now bandaged hands.

"About few hours, it's almost midnight now. How do you feel?"

"It doesn't matter..." Ginga faltered for a moment before he could find a word to say "There's something I want to ask you... about..."

"?"

"The story you'd told everyone earlier" he decided to jump right down to business "Was it true?"

It was his father's turn to avoid him as he lowered his gaze to the ground, like he didn't want to answer the question. Then hesitantly, he nodded, but that was enough to confirm everything.

"Then why?" Flame flared in Ginga's eyes together with agony "You lied to me! Why did you lie to me?" Again, there was no reply from Ryuusei, the man kept avoiding him just like he had avoided to mention about it.

Althought Ginga knew he'd put him in such a difficult situation, but stranglely, at that moment, he was very _pleased_ to do it. And, his patience was run out, "Dad, answer me! Why did you do that?"

Ryuusei visibly flinched as the boy really pushed him to the edge. Unwilling to answer, and yet he had no other choice, he forced himself to look at Ginga.

"Because... I didn't want you worrying about that any more than I've used to do,"

Ginga slightly narrowed his eyes and looked at him skeptically, "What?!"

"I didn't know how to talk about it. I really wanted to tell you, but I couldn't get the words out. I thought it was just easier to keep it to myself... I knew it wasn't right, but trust me, it was just for your own good..."

"So you thought keeping it away from me would make it easier for you to deal with it?! I guess that _did_ work, because you didn't even tell me a bit about it until now." he said sarcastically, "And it seems like you pretty enjoy doing that to me!"

The hostility in his voice unnerved Ryuusei as he stared at the boy, confused "What are you talking about?"

"You still remember when L-Drago had been taken away from our village? " he growled out. "You didn't let me know that you'd survived from Ryuuga's onslaught and I had no choice but to leave the village to avenge your 'death'. Then at the end of the day you finally showed up like nothing happened. What was that for?"

'_Ginga, what the hell are you doing?'_

Ryuusei was stunned. He had no idea why his son was saying these thing. "I..." He tried to protest, but to no avail as Ginga glared at him, made him unsconciously shivered from how icy it was.

Ginga snorted, "And you said it was for my own good?! Had you really meant it, I wouldn't have done that in the first place! Heck, that's the perfect example: Anytime you keep a secret, I'm always in troubles!"

'_Stop it!'_

He surprised to hear himself saying such horrible words, yet he kept continuing his accusation, "And this time, it was a big one! Maybe you would hide it from me forever unless that Kyuubi guy messed everything up!"

'_Stop it! Ginga, stop saying that! You're hurting him!'_

But he couldn't. The things he was doing was completely conflicted with his own thoughts, but he could only _watch_ himself saying in exasperation, "Fine! If you still can't trust me enough to tell me about it after all I've been through, then you'd better stop considering me as a part of our family! Of _your_ family! I don't want to see a betrayal like you anymore!"

It was a second too late when he realized he'd gone too far. His eyes widened in shock and he immediately clapped his hands over his mouth as soon as those words escaped his lips. But his father's expression was telling him that he'd just made the biggest mistake ever.

A mixture of horror, disbelief and intensely sadness washed over Ryuusei's face for a brief moment before he covered up with his emotionless stare. "I see..." he finally said, his voice was quiet and weary.

'_I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean it!' _Ginga tried to voice out his apology, but he couldn't say anything. Something was preventing him, made the words stuck in his throat as he could only stared at his father in shock.

Ryuusei gave him one last look before he slowly headed for the door. "You probaly need rest. I shouldn't disturb you more."

_'Wait, I-'_ Before he could get the words out, the door were closed, completely left him alone with the utter remorse weiling up inside him.

_'What have I done?'_ The way his father look at him stung sharply into his heart, _'How could I say that to him? I didn't mean it! How could I… '_ He brought his knees up against his chest, tears swelled up in his eyes. '_What's happening to me!?'_

/Enjoying yourself aren't you, brat?/ a malicious voice appeared aburbtly, didn't come from his surrounding...

*~*~*~*~*~*

"What happened?" Hokuto asked as he saw Ryuusei closed the door behind him.

"Nothing," he gave a curt reply before walking away from the room, causing Hokuto to follow him quickly.

Noting the obvious distress from Ryuusei, Hokuto kept silent for a short time before he found his courage and hesitantly said: "...He didn't mean it, you know."

That immediately caused him to freeze in his track. His body tensed up as he stopped walking, but still remain silent. He didn't bother to turn back as Hokuto continued,

"I'm sorry, but we all heard it," And everyone in presence was astonished as they could feel how terrible the quarrel was.

To his surprise, Ryuusei just took a deep breath and leaned against the wall, "It's okay..." His eyes were closed as he gave a small smile, but it didn't do much to ease the tension, "Heck, this whole thing is worse than I thought."

"Ryuusei..."

"I'm fine, " he murmured "It's just... It's hard to believe that he finally said that out loud." He couldn't blame Ginga, seeing as how he kept that very big thing hidden from the boy. "I guess he was right, "I really am a betrayal..."

"That's nonsense, you know he doesn't mean it. He's just depressed, what happened today must've really gotten to him." Hokuto distinctly heard the sorrow he was trying hard to mask. "Don't beating yourself up over it!"

His eyes softened as he looked at Hokuto's concerned face. "I'll try, thanks anyway." He nodded, still couldn't suppress that nagging uneasiness.

"C'mon, let's see what the others are doing."

*~*~*~*~*~*

'_What the hell have you done to me, Kyuubi!?'_ Ginga panicked at the voice swirling horrifically in his mind.

/Just a small gift for you, little boy,/ The voice, or Kyuubi, hissed dangerously at him, its taunting tone made Ginga cringe /Cool, isn't it? Don't you like it?/

He covered his ears in an fultile attempt to block it out. _'Stop talking to me!' _He could hear Kyuubi's laugh echoed in his mind, crackling in amusement. He wasn't able to understand how Kyuubi could do it, and his head throbbed like crazy everytime the man said.

/Why are you keep avoiding me like I'm a disease?/ Kyuubi giggled in response as he saw how frightened Ginga was. /You're not better than me though./

'_What are you babbling about?'_ he was nearly struggling with the pain as he yelled.

/Remember when you went off on your father just then?/ Kyuubi said, /If you are a good boy, then how could you say such a terrible accussation to him? You may not realize it, but deep down, you really enjoy watching him suffered-/

Ginga flinched at those words. _'Shut it! That wasn't me! I would never do that!' _he cried out defensively,_ 'It's not true!'_. But what scared him most was that Kyuubi was right - he really _did_ enjoy doing that.

/Don't be so harsh on yourself, brat! But hey, you should've exploded more!/

That was completely baffled Ginga. _'What do you mean?'_

After an eternity of silent, Kyuubi finally said:

/So you really think that he'd told you everything?/

*~*~*~*~*~*

* * *

**Iza: I have no idea what the hell I've just read. What's with your English? *quirk a brow at me*  
****Me: *frown* Hey! I feel confident about this story, but not about my 'horrible' English! And seriously, don't like don't read it!  
****Iza: 'kay, hot-head. I'll stop my complaining... but not for long. You'd better hurry!  
****Me: I'm working on it!**

**See you next time! =D**


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